Mexico weekly ledger., 1887-11-24
THANKSGIVING DAT.

The offering of Thanksgiving To-
Almighty God for the blessings Of
the year, more particularly the
harvest is a. old as the human race.
Many, however, think that 1t Ia Of
Puritan origin, but this Is not the
case, as one Of the objections made
by the Puritans TO the Church of
England is that she keeps harvest
festivals" and some of them claim
that Cain was the first who ever did
so. That the Puritans of New Eng
land, just before the revolution,
kept Thanksgiving Day and that,
towards the last of November is
true, but not from love of harvest
festivals" but in hatred of Christ
mas. The latter day was made a fast
of and compelled by law as such to
be kept, but we have outgrown all
such bigotry and the most rigid
Puritan of to-day eats s'mince pie''
and "plumb duff with as much as
relish as his Episcopalian brother
on the 25th of December.
Under the Mosaic economy the
harvest festival was ordained by
God. Its time was specifed-Penti-
cost--see Exodus xiii: 16; 6;xxxiv:22;
Lev. xxiii:15-22; Deut. xvi:9-13. 1t
was to begin seven weeks after the
time that they began to reap;
then they were s'to rejoice before
the Jehovah with their families,
their servants, the Levites, the
stranger, the fatherless and the
widow in the place chosen by God
forHis house"as they brought free
will offering of their hand to Jeho-
yah, their God.o This was the an
nual Thanksgiving of the Church
of God until the Christian dispen-
sation, when Easter Day took the
place of the feast of the Passover,
"Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us; therefore let US keep the
FEAST" Whitsuntide taking the
place of Penticost, as the Holy
Ghost came down on that day, and
Christmas took the place of the
"Feast of Tabernacles," as God
then became tabernacled in the
flesh. "The word was made flesh
and dwelt Greek, skenoo; Hebrew,
shaken, tabernacle) among us.
Thus the three great festivals OF
the Jewish Church were Christian
lied. F'Three times thou shalt
keep feast unto Me in the year :"
Elk. xxiii:14 and II; xxxiv:23;
Lev. xxiii:4; Deut. xvi:16.
| As the Christian Church was to be
Catholic, not local the day of thanks
giving or harvest home festival
varies in each country. The first
regularly appointed day, to be OBJ
served by the church of a country,
was that of August 1st, appoint
ed by the English Church in 1862
and called "Lammas Day." Loaf
mass or feast of first fruits. Pre-
vious to that time individual par
ishes and dioceses set apart any
week after harvest time which was
most convenient. The first re-
corded in this country is that "be-
ing helde bye ye churche of Eng
lande." then, Popham colonists,
who, on August 9, 1907, (o.s) land
ed upon an island near the Ken
nebec and under ye shadoe of a
highe crosse lystened to a sermone
by Chaplain Seymoure,'' "alsoe
gyving God thanks for our happy
metinge and safe aryvall into we
contry."
In the fall of 1921 was held the
first ''Puritan thanksgiving" when
"the harvest being gathered the
Governor sent four men ON fowling
that so we might after a special
manner, rejoice together "and
they brought back a number o1
turkeys" In 1923 another thanks.
giving day is kept in July, and fo,
the timely arrival of some provis.
ions, and then there is a blank; and
for nearly fifty years Plymouth
colony never kept thanksgiving,
The Massachusetts, colony, how.
ever, kept a thanksgiving service
in 1880, but it had no reference to
the harvest. In 1857 another was
held but for a victory over the In.
dians, and another in 1876 for vic
tory over King Phillip, but these
were in no way harvest thanks
givings.
In Connecticut there were now
and then thanksgiving services
held, and in New York thanks
giving sermon was held in 1641 to
thank "Our God," that at Green
wich, Conn, a large body of In
dians were collected and cone
hundred and eighty were shot and
five hundred were burnt in their
wigwams by their own hands rath-
er than die by our hands"
During the revolutionary war
was held the first annual national
thanksgiving. and it was ordered
by Congress, when peace was pro-
claimed it was remanded to the
several States-where it is to-day.
Many desire to have Thanksgiy-
ing Day earlier in the fall, and ad-
vocate some Thursday in October
and have gone SO far as to have